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An Old (New) TV Technology Back in Play

By Eric A. Taub December 2, 2008 5:28 pmDecember 2, 2008 5:28 pm

S.E.D. (for Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display), a promising television display technology that was seen as a worthy competitor to LCD and plasma but ultimately went nowhere, may be poised for a comeback.

Applied Nanotech, an American company that sued Canon for S.E.D. patent infringement in 2005 and won, only to have the decision reversed, has confirmed that it will not pursue the matter to the Supreme Court.

“The likelihood of our case even being heard by the Supreme Court is pretty slim,” said Doug Baker, Applied Nanotech’s chief financial officer. “We believe it wasn’t worth going through the effort.”

As a result, Canon, which had allied itself with Toshiba to bring S.E.D. TVs to market, is free to revive the technology.

In 2006, S.E.D. demonstrations at the Consumer Electronics Show wowed the crowds, for a simple reason: the pictures on the S.E.D. prototype sets were fabulous, with deep blacks, extraordinarily sharp images, and thin form factors. The pictures I saw at the time easily outdid those available on LCD and plasma TVs.

The companies pledged to have sets on the market by the end of 2007. But of course, it never happened.

According to an article in The Financial Times, Canon claims that they have a new production process that could make the price of S.E.D. sets competitive with existing TV technology.

Canon continues to promote the benefits of the technology on its Web site. If the company decides to revive S.E.D. it would have the added burden of educating consumers to think about another new technology after most have shown a clear preference for LCD TVs.

Customers “have shown a clear preference for LCD TVs” over plasma because they’re cheaper and more reliable, not through any natural love for the LCD. If an SED is as inexpensive as an LCD and looks better, you can bet the customer will immediately show “a clear preference” for the SED over the LCD.

Since SEDs have never been on the market, we have no reason to say customers prefer LCD to SED technology.

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